BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The UAB School of Engineering will hold the final round of a robot sumo, or "sumobot," competition in the lobby at the Business-Engineering Complex on campus today from 10:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m., according to UAB spokesperson Katherine Shonesy.

The first two rounds of the competition were held Monday and Wednesday of this week.

Engineering students built robots especially for this event, and the designs fight it out in a sumo ring on the lobby floor.

In sumobot competitions, which have been held often in Japan and the United States, the bots -- as in a real-life sumo wrestling match -- try to push each other out of the ring.

The sumobots were constructed by teams of four or five students from two honors classes in engineering design. Each team had five weeks to make the robots.

"Each group designed their own robot geometry that was then manufactured utilizing the design lab's 3-D printers," Professor Doug Ross said on the web site.

The students must make sure their bots have enough mechanical power to compete, but the bots must also be equipped with sensors and other technology that allow them to find their opponents and to identify the limits of the playing area and stay within the ring.

The sumobots must be autonomous. In addition, they must be a certain size and weight. according to the rules that have been created for such competitions.

The robots used this week at UAB, considered "mini sumos," cannot be larger than 100 x 100 mm or weigh more than 500 grams.